Hello everyone, and welcome to the week! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of the last seven days. If I had to pick two themes for today’s batch of games, it would be ‘Tokyo’ and ‘Apple Arcade’. I think we can figure out what both of those are about, so I’ll just move along. The main thing is that we have some very nice games with some cool updates for you to check out. Of course, you can keep an eye out for updates yourself by participating in the TouchArcade forums or by watching the daily news here at TouchArcade. This weekly summary is just here to fill you in on the things you might have missed. Let’s go for it!
The Seven Deadly Sins, Free Ah yes, the seven deadly sins: Happy, Sleepy, Grumpy, Bashful, Sneezy, Dopey, and Doc. Never Doc, friends. Not even once. Anyhow, this latest update sees the Grand Cross Original Series: Ragnarok event kick off. Three new Ragnarok heroes have been added: Wielder of Gram Prince Sigurd, Ragnarok Lostvayne Meliodas, and Warrior of Justice Wanderer Thonar. Ragnarok Chapter 1 has been unlocked, a special spin event has been added, and if you log in right now you’ll get 100 Diamonds and Thonar for free. Well, there you go.
MARVEL Puzzle Quest: Hero RPG, Free Hey, the Marvel Puzzle Quest update notes actually have some information in them. How nice. So what do we have here? Apparently Kate Pryde (Marauders) is in some events at the moment. She’s pretty awesome, so feel free to add her to your team if you can. Aim for the top of the Soul Stone Season while you have a chance, prepare for Puzzle Ops on the 29th, and log in on July 30th to get a free gift to celebrate the International Day of Friendship. There’s always something good going on in this game, even after all these years. Really, most of the current Marvel games have been going on for a long while now. Only my beloved Avengers Academy had to perish, it seems.
TSM Game, Free There are a lot of Japan and Tokyo-themed updates going on right now for obvious reasons. The Sims Mobile is deep into its latest Sim Festival Season, titled Hello Japan. What does it have to do with Japan? From the update notes, I sure can’t figure it out. You can bake goodies in a re-run of Grand Mansion: Sweet Treat Showdown. There’s also a Treasure Hunt event called Bargains Aplenty, which I can assure you is definitely not about Tokyo. Well, I’m sure there are some Japan-related things in here that they just didn’t make note of. I’m not firing it up again to check, though.
Subway Surfers, Free Here’s a more straightforward nod to the big event in Tokyo, albeit without coming right out and saying it. Very litigious sorts, those big sports meet chaps. So you’ll just be surfing the rails in Tokyo, picking up new surfer Akira, trying to score the new Sakura board, and maybe nabbing the Meow outfit for Harumi. Collect tokens in the urban landscape and score some Season Hunt goodies, and complete the new Daily Challenge to get more nice rewards. Akira is basically as close to a ninja as you’re likely to get in this game, but he looks more like a kid who is dressing to resemble one. Probably exactly what he’s meant to be.
Toy Blast, Free It’s the obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update for the week, and I’m heading back to the Blast well again. The important bit is, as usual, fifty new levels. But let’s see what the narrative justification for it is, as that’s the actual reason I include these games in these round-ups. Anyone can make a good update sound interesting, but it takes real skill to fluff up these level packs. This time, it’s apparently about harvesting rice? I don’t know either, friends. Mister and Rhino are in charge of this operation, and I didn’t meant to combine Rhino and ‘charge’ there but I’m going to take it. If you want to play a good game about rice farming, please play Sakuna: Of Rice & Ruin on a Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, or PC near you.
Genshin Impact, Free Genshin Impact 2.0! Remember when we used to use ‘2.0’ to imply that something was more advanced or futuristic? Ah, those were the days. In this case, it’s just a version number. So what’s new? Three new characters, a new area, a new event called Thunder Sojourn, some new story and Archon quests to complete, a couple of new weapons, and some new opponents to battle. Throw all of that together, and you’ve got a little thing miHiYo is calling The Immovable God and the Eternal Euthymia. Cool name. I’d imagine players are happy to get any new treats, and this all seems very treat-ish.
Skate City, Hey, what a coincidence. Skate City is also in Tokyo right now! Nothing to do with that whole big event thing, so lawyers can keep sleeping. This update adds Tokyo, the largest city in the game yet. There are 21 new individual challenges, and 30 new goals to complete within Free Skate mode. Plenty of cool sights to see, so grab your board and start grinding those fictional rails. You sure can’t do it in the real city, that’s for sure. There’s a whole lot to do in this new area, and that’s all you could really ask for from a Skate City update.
Marble Knights, WayForward’s cool Apple Arcade game Marble Knights got a seriously big-pants update in this last week. Two new mini-games have been added, Hockey and Snowball Sumo. Folks, you had me at ‘hockey’. The Hockey mini-game sees you attacking the puck and trying to slam it into the goal. Snowball Sumo is a little less conventional. You need to roll your Snowball Orb to build it up and knock your opponents off the mountain. Taking these new goodies into account, the game now has a total of ten modes and mini-games to play. As I like to spread the joy around, I think I’ll give Marble Knights the coveted UMMSotW award for this time around.
Mini Motorways, Here’s another huge update for an Apple Arcade game, one that is almost as worthy of the coveted prize. First up, two new maps to explore. Dubai and Mexico City add their unique sights and styles to the game, giving you some interesting new ways to play. There’s also a new upgrade in the form of Roundabouts, which you can add to your city to improve the overall traffic flow in busy areas. A new GIF capture tool allows you to capture your own GIFs for your personal records and/or social media use. More Daily and Weekly Challenges have been added, Colorblind mode has been improved to make it better for a wider variety of colorblind types, and a new progression system has been implemented to unlock new maps. It’s a great game, and I’m always happy to have new reasons to revisit it.
SP!NG, More Apple Arcade! More! How about the rather awesome Spexclamationpointing? You’ve got eighteen new classic levels to play, with some crafty new traps and hazards to deal with. A new mechanic has been added in the form of the Crank, which seems to be all the rage lately. Check The Lab and see what happens when you crank it up! Finally, there’s a new theme. PARK L!FE was put together by artist Momo and features all new music, vibrant visuals, and twelve unlockable characters. Bug fixes, gameplay improvements, and some new achievements round out the business for this update.
That about wraps it up for last week’s significant updates. I’m sure I’ve missed some, though, so please feel free to comment below and let everyone know if you think something should be mentioned. As usual, major updates will likely get their own news stories throughout this week, and I’ll be back next Monday to summarize and fill in the blanks. Have a great week!
